DofE expedition food

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Any recommendations for suitable expedition food. I have a 6ft3in rugby player who will probs starve if he only has sachets of porridge and Dolmio pots!!

Will he eat pepperami/jerky it's a good way of getting protein that doesn't need to be cold. Weetabix drinks are good and handy but heavy so best for the beginning of the trip. Nuts and dried fruit to add to the porridge and as snacks?

Thanks. I'm just a bit concerned that too much protein and not enough water is a bad combination for his kidneys but equally he is extremely health conscious.

Jerky and nuts is great. Thx

For a short trip I wouldn't worry unless he has other health issues. But how about some flapjack (baked pretty hard) or the ready packs of rice if they will have a small cooking stove?

Great thanks.

Just looked at DofE site and they recommend Wayfarer packs. Have ordered a few to try!

Lots of pasta, can of tuna and sachet of pasta sauce.

M&s has some fab meals in sachets and little pots. Can boil in water still in pot to heat up. Think spag bol, currys, tangene type meals. I use them when I through hike. Reccomend them. As well as oat bars, jerky, dried fruit etc

In with the tins sorry just to add.

I'm trying to work this out for DD at the moment. They need a lot of calories! I'd say stay away from cans though as they'll be too heavy.

Which award is he doing? Is there info on the DofE website? Mine has just signed up for Bronze but it's only an overnighter, so I don't think he'll starve! Powdered soup and pasta? Do they have to carry water?

My kids cooked bacon and eggs in the morning! They tended to have sandwiches at lunch and then pasta with tomato sauce with chicken through it or similar for tea. Plus as much rubbish as they could possibly carry for snacks.

Is he doing bronze? If so, it's only 2 nights isn't it? We had a bit of a nightmare with ds1 as he was super fussy with food so couldn't load him up with porridge, cake flapjack etc. as he wouldn't eat any of that. He also doesn't eat cheese or pnb. I think he survived on plain bagels for bronze and silver.

DS2 eats anything, he had dehydrated food that he only had to add water to, we got those in Cotswold Outdoor. He also took loads of flapjacks etc. Gold was a bit more problematic because they were wild camping and had to take all their provisions with them for 5 nights. He managed though.

There's some very good dehydrated meals you can get in camping shops - NOT pot noodle, which will lead to a fail!

Other than those dehydrated meals, mine took lots of power bars (there's loads of brands available - in supermarkets as well as in places like Holland and Barrett), nuts, jerky, dried fruit and kendall mint cake. He took a big water bottle, but the route was arranged so they did have an opportunity to refill, so I'd be surprised if yours couldn't drink as much as he wanted.

It's not a very long time away, so the protein-heavy thing isn't really a problem.

Thanks. That's all great. He's doing silver and the qualifying trip is 8 meals, 3 dinners, 3 breakfasts and 2 lunches.

I bought the shelf stable paneer curries and biryani (world foods aisle) boil in bag, pasta and sauce, and loads of nuts for energy, for breakfast she took instant porridge. Don't forget hot chocolate sachets (stolen from hotel we went to week before along with little milk cartons). Camping shops have army style ones but taste revolting (as do real army ones according to dd, just as well she's in the navy). For treats she took individually wrapped pain au chocolat.

Dds group are taking sausage rolls and pork pies for snacks.

Clif bars - have a look at gels etc sold for long distance runners, too.

cliff bars/cereal bars very good supplement-agree with nuts and dried fruit.

chocolate essential. think mine also took percy pigs for a bit of a sugar rush when they needed a boost

There is a range of ready meals in pouches called ‘Look What I Found’which are available in lots of supermarkets. They are mainly casserole. DS and his pals used these and just cooked some rice or pasta to go with.

Many supermarkets have 'tinned tomatos' in tetra packs now which are lighter than tins. Boil pasta drain, add tinned toms chopped up pepperoni. Is not bad and very filling.
I always think it is a choice between weight and taste. I could never do pot noodles etc they make me nauseous so I always carried tins, a tin of corned beef, a chopped onion and tin of potatoes lovely corned beef hash. Eggs travel very well in the kettle, smoked bacon last well out of the fridge. Pasta carbonara if you also take some Parmesan.

I think this is the only advantage to DS doing canoeing for his Silver. Not so much worry about weight as it will all be in the canoe rather than on his back. Those "look what we found" pouches are great. I'm trying to suggest to DS that rather than 8 of them in the team each bringing their own food to cook that wouldn't it be better to buy a big bag of pasta to share and a pouch of dolmio?

But I am his mother and know nothing.

Fresh pasta-easy to cook, grilled halloumi in buns, flapjacks, cereal bars, small ready made pancakes and syrup for breakfast, nuts.

You can get dehydrated meals from places like Cotswold Outdoors - just add boiling water. Some of them are 1000 calories apiece and they're pretty tasty.

I took army ration packs, they provided plenty of food and were easy to cook

expedition food you add boiling water to is the way to go - it’s what my ds took for silver - a number of them did and it proved very successful. He had this in various forms for breakfast and evening meal. Plus there’s no washing up!!

Snacks bags with nuts, raisins and other dried fruit, chocolate etc in.

Lunch- sausage rolls, cold pasta with salad veg dressed in olive oil - big pot of this - lasts v well with no fridge (he always has this for rowing).

DS's advice is "if you take tinned tuna don't forget a tin opener"